Sunny Youth Journal

In the short story, the sound of thunder, the author is clearing saying something very important. It is about a man who travels back in time with a company called Time Safari Inc. to hunt dinosaurs. They are told not to do anything that will alter the past because it could change the future.
If a single animal dies, it won’t have any babies which means that the whole generation of that animal is doomed. Same thing in this story. One of the hunters steps on a butterfly that lives back then, which means the current butterfly that is related the to dead one also dies. The entire generation of those butterflies also dies. If they leave a bullet, cave men might discover it. Thus, the gun might be invented early. Cave paintings would show modern weapons instead of bows and arrows. If they kill the dinosaur early on, entire fossils can change. exhibit in museums could have changed. What if they killed Sue the famed T-rex, the museum would have a tiny little dinosaur or they could have never found it. The theme is, if you do something small, it could have a big impact.
Therefore, this is why I think the theme of the short story is little things make big differences.

The story “A Sound of Thunder,” Starts when a man named Eckels enters the office of Time Safari, Inc., a company that offers time travel to hunters that want to hunt prehistoric animals. Eckels gives a check for $10000 to the clerk and asks if the company ensures that hunters return alive from the past. The person replies that the company guarantees no safety, only the guarantee of dinosaurs. Hunters must strictly obey their guides, shooting only what and when they are instructed to shoot. Any disobedience will result in a $10000 fine, and also possible government penalties.

Eckels studies the nearby time machine and tells the clerk that having Deustcher as a president would be awful. The clerk agrees that it would indeed have been awful if Deutscher had been elected. The two men quickly return, however, to discussing the opportunity Eckels will have to shoot a T-Rex, the most famous prehistoric dinosaur. The clerk warns that if Eckels is attacked and eaten by a dinosaur, the company is not liable. Six safari guides died last year, along with a dozen hunters. The clerk asks Eckels seriously that he really wants to do this trip.

Eckels says that he does, and so he is introduced to Travis, the experienced safari guide who will lead this safari. Travis and Eckels, carrying rifles, enter the time machine, which is already occupied by Travis’s assistant, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. The machine kicks into operation and the nights, days, weeks, months, years, centuries, and millennia zooms by . Leaving A.D 2055, the men soon arrive in the middle of a jungle that existed millions of years ago.

As they look out of the time machine, Travis points out a metal path into the jungle. Made of anti-gravity metal, it hovers half a foot above the ground. It was placed there by the company to prevent hunters from in any way having physical contact with the jungle. Travis tells them that they are never to leave the path. He sternly told the men pay careful attention to this rule and never violate it. They are not to touch anything, and they are not to shoot at any animals unless Travis approves. When Eckels asks why, Travis explains that the company does not want to take any chances by changing anything at all about the future. Destroying even an insect, mouse, or any other living thing could cause undeterminable consequences in the future. This is especially the case since killing one living thing in the jungle would mean wiping out the potential offspring of that thing, and thus the offsprings’ offspring, and so on and on and on for infinite generations. The results of killing anything in the jungle are literally unpredictable, even bacteria, which is one reason that all the men are wearing oxygen masks. Killing just one animal might some day mean, for instance, that a future caveman might not survive by eating the distant offspring of that animal, and the non-survival of that caveman would change human history forever. In short: no one is to kill anything except an animal that would die almost 2 seconds after the encounter with the hunters. Which the company sprayed with red paint.

The company sent scouts to record any accidental deaths, that occur on a certain time frame, and they mark the dinosaur with red paint. Then, when they kill that certain dinosaur, then it wouldn’t have altered anything, since it was gonna die almost immediately after.

Eckels was scared when a T-rex marked with red paint approached, and ran off the trail, kicking up dirt. Travis screamed at him and told him to take the bullets out of the dinosaur. I would imagine that to be very disgusting. When they went back to the future, they realized that the president was changed, and the entire alphabet was in complete mayhem and the atmosphere had a different type of gas . Out of pure rage, Travis shot Eckels, and Eckels died.

The question of the global warming, a butterfly effect, is one that has concerned scientists and nature conservatives, who have the responsibility of saving and protecting the Earth. This story can easily relate to global warming, as they both have the butterfly effect and show how easily the world can change.

“A Sound of Thunder” is about how a hunter called Eckels, who wants an adventure of hunting outside of his normal game. He decides to go on a time machine into the era of the dinosaurs, where he goes on an expedition to hunt the T. Rex. After a swift encounter in which they have hunted and killed the T. Rex, Eckels leaves the designated trail, in which he comes back only get get yelled at by Mr.Travis, the Safari Leader of his group, who thinks that Eckels stomped on at least one thing. When they got back to the present times, Travis’s fears were proven correct. The U.S president was Deutscher instead of Keith and the spelling was insane and absurd. I’m not sure but in the end I think Travis shot Eckels but maybe he shot himself.

I believe that “A Sound of Thunder” is a perfect example of a butterfly effect, and that we shouldn’t be the same as the people in the story who reportedly crushed one butterfly, and somehow they got a different president and strange spelling. We should try to stick in our daily lives, and keep our noses in our own business first.

To recapitulate, “A Sound of Thunder” gives a great moral of how fragile the ecosystem is and how easily we can change not only nature, but also us. If we are to stay the same and not die out, we should keep the environment the same, too.

-Jüßtįñ

“The Lady or the Tiger” by Frank Stockton takes place in a land where a king presides over court using chance to determine people’s innocence or guilt. Inside of a public arena are two doors. Behind one is a woman whom the accused must marry if he opens that door. Behind the other is a hungry tiger. If that door is chosen by the accused, the accused is considered guilty and will be eaten by the tiger. The king’s daughter falls in love with a man of lower status, and he is brought into the arena to choose a door. The princess learns which door has the tiger and which one has the lady, and she discreetly tells her lover to open the door on the right. However, it is never revealed what was behind that door, so we don’t know if she led him into death or into marriage with another woman.

You can’t really say there is a theme for this short story, but the moral value of “The Lady, or the Tiger?” story is we have to be careful in making decisions. Every decision must be well considered before it becomes a final. The consideration should be reviewing the effects for us in our next steps of life. The king made the accused make a life-deciding decision, and it was all chance if they lived or died. This was a pretty interesting story as it was ended with a cliffhanger, since we don’t know what happened to the prince, and what was behind the door he chose.

In Frank R. Stockton’s “The Lady, or the Tiger?” the king of the land serves justice by forcing the wrongdoer to choose between two doors, behind one of which is a tiger, and behind the other a lady. Without knowing who waits behind which door, the wrongdoer chooses between life and death blind and deaf to which one he is choosing. Specifically, the princess’s lover is forced to choose between the two doors when the king finds out about his relationship with the princess. Standing before the doors, the young man looks up at the princess, who points her finger right. So the young man chooses the door on the right, and there the author invites us to decide for ourselves what we believe the princess wanted for her lover: to live married to another woman, and one she hates at that, or to die rather than be with anyone other than her, especially someone she hates?

Now, it can be assumed that the door on the right hides the tiger, for the story describes the princess agonizing over the decision and the passage about the lady is three times as long and much more passionate than the passage about the tiger. So, it seems that the young man’s fate hinges entirely on what the princess wants. However, this is only so because he chooses to trust the princess. If he did not trust the princess with his happiness and his fate, he would not go along with her choice so confidently- what if she chose wrong? And in that is another choice that is the young man’s, and his only: what he wants for himself.

But what he wants for himself is linked with what he wants for the princess. He loves her, yes? Therefore, even faced with the possibility of death, he would gladly die from being mauled by a tiger to see her happy. He sees that it would make the princess unhappy that he does not trust him, so he goes along with her choice.

And there is yet another example of decisions of his own: whether he himself or the princess matters more to him, and whether he trusts the princess, chance, or his own intuition more.

So I guess this is all meant to say that every decision is affected by innumerable other decisions, no matter the importance of those, no matter how ill-informed the decision made seems. And that knowing yourself is a very important thing in life- whether the young man knows himself well enough to decide whether he is willing to face death, emotional infidelity, the unknown, or far, far worse for someone he loves is a very big factor in his fate.

Open endings, in some cases, it leaves the reader really irritated. But open ending also forces the readers to think and guess what will happen in the rest of the story. It will not give the reader an ending but the reader can think of their own. It gives the reader the choice to their ending bast on the information that they got. There is one reason why an author might choose to have an Ambiguous ending, and here’s why.

The reader wants you to think and give the story an ending best on the information that they give, and your background information. He might think that he is not able to get the reader a perfect ending that they want cause everyone likes their own ending. However, they well give you a huge quantity of clues based on the story and the information. So you can find out the ending that you like.

Lastly, In some ways, I feel that an author allowing us to make up our own minds about the ending of their story is almost an honor. So don’t get mad and keep thinking.

“The Lady or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton takes place in a semi-barbaric nation ruled by a semi-barbaric king. One of the defining features if the kingdom is its way of trying those accused of a crime. The accused is put in a Roman inspired arena. He will then choose between two doors, one which contains a hungry tiger, the other a lady whom he will be immediately married to. One day the king’s daughter is discovered to be in love with a young man who instantly gets tossed into the arena. When he is about to chose which door to open, he looks at her for a gesture, which she gives. However, the story ends there, and no conclusion is offered. So which door did the princess choose? Furthermore, what is Stockton trying to say about humans and the world?

At the end of the story, Stockton explains the princess’s struggle to decide which door to have her lover open. She could either have him live and marry another woman who she despises, or watch him get shredded by a tiger. He asks the readers the question of what door she chooses, never providing his own answer. This is intended, because the question is best left unanswered. Throughout the story there is much evidence that alludes to this. For example, the king used to be barbaric, but after Roman influence, he is now halfway between barbaric and civilized. The trials also reflect this halfway point. One outcome is tragic, and the other is pleasant. In addition, the king thinks of the trials to be “perfectly fair”, as there is an equal chance of uncertainty between the outcomes. The ideas of semi-barbarism, 50/50, and uncertainty should be a part of the ending too. Stockton also never shows any bias towards civilization or barbarism, which further supports the idea that the ending has to be left without an answer.

Like mentioned earlier, Stockton writes that the princess spent days pondering the fate of the young man. Her two options are reflective of the driving forces of love. There is the selfish side, shown through her loathing of the idea of the man spending his life with another woman. Also present is the selfless side that wants the best for her better half, because even though he is with someone else, at least the one she loves is alive. The lack of a conclusion also means the lack of an answer to which driving force of love is stronger. It is likely Stockton is saying that love is a balance of both.

After examining “The Lady or the Tiger”, the ending is clearly not just a cheap cliffhanger. The themes of the story require it to be left unconcluded, and it also shows how love is a mixture of selfish and selflessness.

Today we learn about the story of Beethoven, the first thought that came to my mind is being successful is not easy for any person.

As we all know, we all want to be successful. But we also know, that is not an easy thing. Behind all the gorgeous, has survived numerous dark night. We can see how confidence Beethoven was when he was playing the piano. We can know how amazing his music was. But we can never know how much time and energy he spent on it. I think that is the way how can a person be successful. You need time, energy, and patient. There is a person I know who is crazy about dancing to hip-pop. He went to Korea to learn dancing when he was 13 years old. He couldn’t speak any Korean, so he spoke English. He kept practicing dancing in all his free time and he did a very good job of dancing. He also learned how to speak Korean. After 3 years, he became a pop star. Unfortunately, not all people like him. Some of them even tried to hurt him. They slandered him online. He needed to bear all of those when he was 16. He didn’t give up. He worked much harder than before. Sometimes he even forgot to sleep and eat. After 4 years, many people started to notice him and discover the shining points of him. He became a household name. He succeeds.

The truth I want to point out is there is no shortcut to success, no pains, no gains. The things you can do is work hard, don’t give up, and be modest. You must be successful one day.

Prologue: In a semi-barbaric fantasy high-tech world, where guilt is decided by chance. The illegal lover of the king’s daughter is put into a stadium to choose between two doors. One door contains a beautiful lady, whom the man would be instantly married to. The other door contains a fierce and powerful tiger which will pounce on the man.

A long arched dark tunnel which led into the stadium stood in front of the handsome man. The tunnel’s walls and the floor were constructed out of heavy stone bricks, and moss was starting to form between the brick’s gaps. There was a bright light that awaited the man at the end of the tunnel. As he walked closer, the chittering and chattering of the audience could be heard clearly. The second the man walked out of the tunnel, everyone applauded. The large clapping echoed throughout the entire stadium.

The sandy floor of the stadium was covered in small dusty pebbles. In front of him were two doors, identical. Their dents, ridges, designs, colors, or anything could not be differentiated. The man cautiously approached the doors, one mistake, and he would die. He looked up at the princess, his lover. She was clothed in sparkling dress, with a small shining tip peeking out one of her pockets. The princess quickly confidently nodded, secretly communicating, Remember the plan, and jerked her righted hand upwards. Nobody but the man saw her gesture.

As the man walked in front of the doors, everything was silence. Every eye was fixed upon him, every breathe was held. He took a deep breath and opened the door on the right.

Instantly, the man’s nervous emotion changed into pure fear. In front him sat the tiger. It was over a dozen feet tall and towered over the man. Its vibrant yet deceiving black and orange stripes decorated its skin. His massive paws were equipped with razor sharp claws that looked like daggers. It’s expression was focused, fierce, and frustrated. The tiger’s cold empty red eyes were flaming with anger and fixed on the man.

The tiger jerked its head and leaped into the air. Its massive body cast a terrifying shadow over the man. Just before the tiger landed, the man slid across the dirt and dodged its attack. The dust obscured the tiger’s vision, but just as fast as it had happened, its eyes were locked onto the man again. The tiger walked towards the man in strange twitching motions and opened its mouth wide. The man swiftly pulled his emergency knife out of his pocket and thrusted it at the tiger’s chest. The puncture was leaking out a gassy substance, and seemed to not effect the tiger’s approach.

Out from nowhere, a second knife shot at the tiger’s back, and the same gas started spewing out. It was the princess jumping down from the audience seating, and the shining tip was no longer in her pocket.

“Let’s do this together,” the princess shouted. A smile of hopefulness appeared on the man’s face.

The tiger twisted its head backwards, its eyes following the princess’ movements like a tracking missile.

The tiger jumped in a perfectly straight line directly at the princess just as if gravity did not affect it. The tiger’s claws lengthened and it scraped the princess’ leg.

“NOOOO!” the man shouted. Just before the tiger was about to unleash its killing move, the man swung his foot at inhumane speeds directly at the tiger’s waist. The tiger was knocked off guard and flew many feet away from the princess before landing with a booming thud.

“Are you okay!” the concerned man shouted.

“Yeah! It’s just my foot,” the princess responded, “If you hadn’t kicked it there, I would’ve — WATCH OUT!” The tiger almost snuck up behind the man, but the princess held the man with all her might and jumped aside. The tiger’s powerful attack left a large crater on the floor.

“We need stronger weapons!” the man screamed.

“There’s some weapons in the tunnel,” the princess responded. The man was confused, but just listened. Together, the man and princess sprinted into the tunnel, moving in zig-zag lines in order to confuse the tiger. When they got inside the tunnel, the princess placed her hand on one of the bricks, opening up a gateway which revealed a large variety of weapons. There were maces, swords, guns, flamethrowers, electrical weapons, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The princess took out a freeze gun, and the man took an electric gun. The princess waved her hand, and the secret gateway closed itself back into the stones.

“GRRRR!” the terrifying growl of the tiger echoed from the end of the tunnel. The princess squinted her eyes and shot out a beam of ice. The beam engulfed the tiger in a block of hard ice, disabling its mobility. The man followed in her steps and shot out a zap of electricity. The electricity hit the tiger and it looked as if an invisible force had blown up something inside the tiger.

Strangely, the tiger’s red eyes extinguished and its body fell limp. It was no longer moving in any way, it had been powered off. The two fighters walked towards the tiger, and noticed that below its skin was a large machine, some batteries, and many wires. The tiger every was afraid of had been a machine the entire time.

Epilogue: The king was astonished by the man’s abilities, and he eventually decided that he wanted her princess to be married to this legend. Together, the princess and her lover lived happily ever after.

Today, Ludwig van Beethoven is known as one of the greatest composers and musicians of all time. His well-known works include Symphony No.9 and Für Elise. However, a distinct factor that separates Beethoven from other composers was his deafness. Beethoven started losing his hearing in his late-20s with an increased ringing sound in his ears. Eventually, he became completely deaf. At the time, people felt that the more deaf he was becoming, the stranger and worse his music became. Now, Beethoven is appreciated and admired for his unique type of music. Many people now, including myself, believe that his deafness, in fact, was an enhancement for his music instead of holding him back. 

In my opinion, Beethoven could compose music without the fear of not being accepted or being judged by himself and others. Instead of having to compose music that would fit into the style of his time, he could not worry about what people thought of him. Furthermore, this would allow him to express his feelings and thoughts through his music more clearly. When he wrote a song, he didn’t have to listen to it first, and correct it if he didn’t like the way it sounded. Overall, Beethoven’s personal judgement of the way one of his songs sounded was not a blockade for his music, and instead gave him free reign of what he wanted and didn’t want to express through his music. 

Secondly, Beethoven’s lack of hearing could enhance his creativity and imagination, similarly to how deaf people’s other senses are often slightly enhanced. Beethoven could focus on a more visual and emotional form of music instead of focusing on the specific notes and overall sound of the music. This can be shown through the differences between his and Mozart’s music. Mozart’s music is more clean and precise than Beethoven’s, as if to satisfy himself and the audience. In contrast, Beethoven’s music is more personal and emotional, reflecting his own thoughts and opinions. 

Overall, Beethoven’s lack of hearing impacted his music through one way or another. He did not have to worry about the sound of the music and his judgements through the sound. Furthermore, he could express his personal feelings and emotions more clearly through his music.